Dublin Mosque

Dublin Mosque
Religion
Affiliation	Islam
Location
Location	Dublin, Ireland
Geographic coordinates	53°19′53″N 6°16′57″W
Architecture
Type	Church
Style	Roman
Completed	1884 (1983 converted)
Specifications
Capacity	500
Dome(s)	0
Minaret(s)	0
Website
islaminireland.com

Dublin Mosque is a mosque on the South Circular Road, Dublin in Ireland. It is currently the headquarters of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland.

The Muslim Community in Ireland

The first trickle of Muslims arrived in Ireland in the early 1950s. Initially, they came for education, especially to study medicine at the famous Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. Perhaps the Muslim students from the Republic of South Africa were the first to arrive in Ireland for this purpose. Students then followed from India, Malaysia and the Gulf states. In the 1970’s a number of trainees in aircraft engineering came to Ireland from Algeria, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. When a number of students decided to reside in this country for work, and with the arrival of a number of Muslim businessmen and traders from the U.K., the first resident Muslim community in Ireland was formed. For many years the community was relatively small. According to the Irish census for 1991 the number of Muslims was 3,873. Since 1991 the number of Muslims increased considerably after the arrival of Muslim refugees from Bosnia, Somalia and Kosovo, as well as asylum seekers and professionals and workers from various Islamic countries. There is a still a good number of students mainly from Malaysia, the Gulf states and Pakistan. There are an estimated number of 2,000 medical doctors. The rest are businessmen, professionals, workers, asylum seekers, children, housewives and others. There is a number of Irish Muslims who accepted Islam and some European Muslims. According to the Irish census 2002 the number of Muslims was 19,147. The number has risen to 32,500 in 2006. The total population of Ireland was 4,239,848. As for the nationalities of Muslims living in Ireland and their countries of origin there over 40 nationalities represented in the community at present. In the 2011 census, the number of Muslims rose by over 51% to a total of 49,200, Islam is the fastest growing religion in Ireland.

The Mosque

The Donore Presbyterian Church was constructed in the 1860s in the style of a 13th-century English church. In 1983 the building on the South Circular Road was bought by the Islamic Foundation of Ireland and converted into a mosque.

External links

• Islamic Foundation of Ireland official website
• Information about the mosque
• Islam in Ireland